Karoline Leavitt is drawing warnings from health professionals after a magazine photoshoot raised questions about whether she received lip injections during her pregnancy.
The 28-year-old White House press secretary announced the day after Christmas that she and her husband, Nicholas Riccio, 60, are expecting a baby girl in May 2026—news that came just weeks after a Vanity Fair photo shoot appeared to show injection sites on Leavitt’s mouth.
While Leavitt has not confirmed whether she received any cosmetic enhancements, medical experts cautioned that such treatments can carry serious risks for unborn babies and their mothers.
“Most medical professionals advise postponing elective cosmetic injectables—like lip filler—until after delivery and nursing, in order to prioritize both maternal and fetal safety,” dermatologist Dr. Mona Gohara of Yale School of Medicine told the Daily Beast.
Gohara explained that there is “not enough data to unequivocally confirm the safety of lip filler during pregnancy.”
“Pregnancy can alter immune and inflammatory responses, making side effects more unpredictable and limiting treatment options if complications arise,” the dermatologist said.
Dylan Wolfe, an aesthetic nurse injector in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, told the Daily Beast that he does not administer cosmetic injections to pregnant patients, noting that such caution is commonplace across the industry.
“There isn’t enough research,” Wolfe said. “There’s not a lot of research on pregnant women in general,” he added, explaining that ethical concerns and federal regulations have historically hindered research involving pregnant patients.
The Vanity Fair photoshoot took place on Nov. 13, meaning Leavitt—nicknamed “The Mouthpiece”—would have already been several months pregnant. Online commenters were quick to point out the timing.
“She clearly got lip fillers in late November or this month, as you could see,” liberal commentator Brian Krassenstein said in a video he made about the controversy. “Which clearly is a no-no. But then again, they don’t believe in science.”
Others pointed to the contradiction between possible cosmetic enhancements and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s September unsupported warning that pregnant women should not use the pain-reliever, acetaminophen, commonly known as Tylenol, because it increases the risk of autism in their children.
That assertion, which lacks conclusive scientific evidence, sparked widespread backlash from the medical community, which vehemently refuted the White House’s claims.
“If Karoline Leavitt is due in May 2026, she was already pregnant when the Vanity Fair photos were taken. Which means she appears to have gotten cosmetic fillers while pregnant,” social media influencer Jesus Freakin Congress wrote in an X post viewed 1.4 million times.
She continued: “And yet, this same administration is out here warning pregnant women not to take Tylenol? So to recap: elective cosmetic injectables are apparently fine, but over-the-counter pain relief is treated like a moral hazard.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The failed congressional candidate has not addressed whether her lips are cosmetically enhanced, and her supporters have countered that swollen lips can be a pregnancy symptom. Sam Escobar, senior editor of the Daily Beast’s beauty, health, and wellness vertical, The Looker, said earlier this month that the markings visible in the Vanity Fair photos were hard to miss.
“It’s surprising to see somebody’s face have those sort of dark marks,” Escobar said. “I do think that they were trying to maybe disguise it a bit,” Escobar added, referring to the lip gloss coating Leavitt’s lips. “Instead, it had the opposite effect, and it just led it to have more of a highlighter effect, and that’s why it looks even more dramatic.”
This isn’t the first time Leavitt’s lips have been subjected to speculation. The 79-year-old president himself has pined over the young press secretary’s mouth several times in public remarks.
“You know, when she goes on television, Fox, like, I mean, they dominate, they dominate,” Trump said at a Pennsylvania rally earlier this month while looking off to the side at his press secretary, who is more than 50 years his junior. “When she gets up there with that beautiful face and those lips that don’t stop-op-op-op, like a little machine gun.”
Vanity Fair photographer Christopher Anderson, who shot the images, said earlier this month that he found it notable that “the internet is freaking out” over what he described as an unfiltered glimpse of Leavitt’s appearance.
“Well, what can I say? That’s the makeup that she puts on, those are the injections she gave herself. If they show up in a photo, what do you want me to say?” he said.
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